What Have You Being Doing With Your Non-triumph Today?

Today I visited my DR650 in bike hospital. It’s in for a long list of jobs to basically recommission it. It has been started on yet but is next but one for the work commencing. The mechanic did say it’ll be towards the end of the year as he is very busy.

 

A little, quite local, ride around through the country lanes.
Found a tranquil spot, that I didn't even know existed.









Sometimes you don't need to go very far to find something new.

 

Driving in the West Country it is a universal truth that everybody eventually catches up to and gets stuck behind the person doing 40mph in a national.

 

Before my first night shift on Thursday, I rode about 50 ish miles to meet my friend on her 125 to go for a ride and then came home again . I took the beautiful Blade and had a lovely trip over, she managed to go much further than last time, so progress is being made . 127 miles done for me in total .

 

An afternoon with my cousin and her husband on their new bikes - hers is even a Triumph!!

 

I've been absent for a week or so....so bit of catching up to do. Last week we met up with some friends - five bikes and seven people - in Knighton and rode a couple of hundred miles on some beautiful roads and some not so beautiful "roads" (thanks Calimoto ) in Wales, finishing at MotoCamp Wales, which is in Dolgellau, Snowdonia. It was a superb day, finished with a lovely evening sitting around drinking beer and catching up.

I put up Helmut and my palatial residence whilst he went into town for some supplies.....


The next day, we did another few hundred miles of exploring (again some questionable roads and some superb ones!) and rode over Barmouth Bridge, which I hadn't done before. We made the error of riding towards Barmouth on it and the very steep hill start surrounded by people and the tight turn onto the road without hitting anything is not something I'd like to repeat . Anyway, it was a superb mini - tour with good friends which was great for the soul.

Fast forwards to this week and my next set of rest days from work and I decided to return to MotoCamp on my own. I headed there after my final night shift and just relaxed after the 100 miles ish journey there, then spent all day yesterday exploring the area again, via some Bike and Brew Passport venues. Last night I just relaxed in the beautiful surroundings and then headed home today doing a few hundred miles via some more Passport venues. I got home a few hours before Helmut came home from work, so had time to get some food in and sort all my kit out.


For anyone who likes peaceful camping with superb facilities and really friendly owners in beautiful surroundings......give MotoCamp a go .

 

Yes it's like once turned on they think they are within a force field and that they are safe to carry on with their manoeuvre
I once heard a story about some car cutting in and out on a long dual carriageway or something similar and no indication what so ever so he was followed by a rather disgruntled biker and when finally the car had to stop the biker approaches the car and begins to kick his indicator lenses the driver quickly jumped out of the car complaining and exchanged some colourful words and to what the biker replied well if you aren't going to use them you don't really need them true story but it might have a different ending if you get where I'm at

 

Coolant change on the Fireblade today - the old stuff that came out looked a lot better than what came out of the Tiger earlier in the week. The tester showed it was still good for protection against freezing temps, but the bike is nine years old so overdue for a full flush job. However I must say I don’t think Mr Honda could have made the job more awkward if he tried. Getting the side fairing off is a PITA





The filler cap is hard up under the air intake duct and the expansion bottle is totally inaccessible above the swing arm pivot point. So disconnecting the hose to it and syphon the contents out is the best option.


Then disconnect the filler cap from the radiator to be able to syphon out the bottom third of the radiator


Three deionised flushes and heat cycles later it’s almost clear.


So one more flush for good measure. Drain bolt back in with a new copper washer then syringe 340 ml of new coolant to the expansion bottle and dribble at the slowest rate possible through the filler until system full. A short run round to burp any air and check for any leaks.

After that it’s just an hour of fiddling and swearing to get the panels back on.


Job done and happy with the result.

 

Looks like a crackin' adventure, @Mrs Visor! I particularly like that last sunset photo. So peaceful.

 

Although my new job is kinda kicking my booty and I should have done some of the work I brought home with me (boo, hiss ), I decided that a bit of "moto-therapy" was more what I needed. So I fired up "Johnnie", my Low Rider ST, and went for a bit of a ride. It was shorter than anticipated because of this....



I stopped by the local Harley dealership to get a big drink of water and check in to say hello since it was the first time I've been there since our road trip of a few weeks ago. No one else seemed to be interested in venturing out in this weather as mine was the only bike there. Lots of cars (with AC no doubt) but only one lonely little blue bike. I do have to say that I've ridden in higher temps but our humidity is higher than typical right now, too. Now if it would only RAIN!



P.S. I have no idea why that screenshot of the weather is so HUGE!

 

It makes your point......

 

Went to the Bimmer dealer and had a test ride on a 1300RT and GS. No too both, so looking at another K16.

 

Playing out on new toys. Tan Hill after breakfast at Johnny Baghdad’s. Lovely cafe.

 

Honda CL500 and CB500F have a morning ride to Loch Lomond.....

 

Putting new boots on the Guzzi.

 

A trip to Bringsty Vintage Cafe for me on the Ducati and then to see my friends for a chat. Only just over 50 miles as I had a sluggish start to my day, having finished a night shift this morning.

This photo catches about the worst angle, however I can promise you that the cafe is extremely nice!

 

Is it in Steptoe and Son's yard?

 

It's one of my very favourite places....I just could not have taken a less flattering photo of the parking area .

 

I just went for a little fly about on my Ducati this morning as I am on rest days from work and Helmut had to work from home today. I went up to Crossgates, where I had to indulge in my favourite ginger biscuit, then just home via Built Wells. 106 miles done .

 

I swore up and down that I'd ride all three of my bikes over the weekend. I've definitely been needing moto-therapy since starting my new job. Well, I almost made it. Two of the three got out for a stretch--my Harley Low Rider ST and my Harley Street Glide. Today was going to be Speedy's day to get out but I got caught up in catching up on...work. Steve keeps telling me not to work on days for which I'm not paid but it's too stressful to go back into my school feeling behind.

Anyway, here's the good stuff! I rode Fast Johnnie two days in a row for about 100 miles total. And I found a lucky penny when I was getting ready to ride home from saying hi to my buddies at our local dealership.



I rode my Street Glide yesterday for our Sunday morning breakfast ride. It was a lovely overcast day. Yes, when you've been blasted by the sun and 100º+ F for months on end, overcast is lovely. We even got sprinkled on a bit on the ride back from Mammoth and our Mexican breakfast at Mi Pueblito.

Our buddy, Russell, had a total knee replacement on August 11th right after we returned from Sturgis. He's starting to get stir crazy. He can drive but can't yet ride his motorcycles or his bicycle so he drove to Mammoth and met us for breakfast. Unbeknownst to Steve and me, he shot a short video of us on the ride back into Tucson. I took a snippet of the video for this photo. 90 miles on the day.



My next ride is going to be on my Speed Triple come hell or high water!!!